Sunday, January 14, 2007

John Edwardses

Yes, "Edwardses" is the plural of "Edwards."

I thought I'd post something on John Edwards's speech at Riverside Church this afternoon (especially since I wrote a couple days ago about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech there in 1967), but I haven't been able to find a full transcript yet.

So I had a great idea: Why not dash off a quick piece about the various John Edwardses in history?

There's the Democratic presidential candidate, of course, and there was Jonathan Edwards, the preacher whose sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741) epitomized certain aspects of the Great Awakening.... sorry, I started to sound like a teacher there, didn't I?

There was Jonathan Edwards, a singer whose anti-Establishment song "Sunshine" was a hit back when I was a kid. The song was about some man (THE MAN, I guess) who was trying to run his life. "He can't even run his own, I'll be damned if he'll run mine." Since I was a kid, the "damn" was the neatest part of the song; I was too young to be firmly anti-Establishment at the time.

And of course there's John Edward (no "s"), who talks to dead people in Crossing Over.

A fun little blog posting, I thought, but I wanted to be sure to be complete. According to Wikipedia (do NOT tell my students you heard me say that):..........................................................

John Edwards may refer to:

Politicians

John Edwards (born 1953), U.S. Senator from North Carolina, candidate for U.S. Vice President in 2004, candidate for U.S. President in 2008

John Edwards (Kentucky) (1748–1837), U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1792 to 1795

John Edwards (Pennsylvania), Congressman from Pennsylvania from 1837 to 1842

John C. Edwards, former Governor of Missouri

John P. Edwards, executive director of the State Bar of Texas since 2005

Lewis John Edwards (1904–1959), Labour Member of Parliament and junior Minister

Sports

John Edwards (basketball) (born 1981), NBA basketball player

Johnny Edwards (baseball player) (born 1938)

John Edwards (cricketer) (1860–1911)

Others

John Edwards (Technology Writer)

John Edwards (American Civil War sailor) (born 1831), Medal of Honor recipient

John Edwards (sailor) (1795–1893), sailor at the Battle of Trafalgar

John H. Edwards, British medical geneticist

John Edwards (musician), a musician of the band the Status Quo

John Edwards (businessman), one quarter of the infamous Phoenix Four, who were involved in the MG Rover buyout